Words

Words are kind of like a commodity: the more of them you use, the less valuable they become. 

It Might Have Been

“Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’”                                                                                                                                                                               John Greenleaf Whittier

Hopes and Prospects (Book)

Sourcing leading academic journals and the best experts, Chomsky pulls the wool that covers our eyes in regards to the way we – according to the revisionist interpretation infected with historical amnesia we’ve been taught  –  view the 20^th century and America’s actions during it. Nothing escapes his gaze; the scope of this novel is breath-taking and is only outdone by the keen insight he offers into global issues as disparate as: Israel-Palestine affairs, the situation in the Middle East, rising NATO-Russian tensions over provocative Ballistic Missile Defence placements, the future of Latin America and why it matters, and domestic US issues amongst other things.

Flash Boys (Book)

“Speed” is the buzzword in M. Lewis’ Flash Boys, which comes just four months after The Big Short. In it, he offers very much the same message: Wall St is making money from its incomprehensibility and your average Joe is being ripped off at the expense of the privileged few. For cynics who believe this to be the natural state of things, Flash Boys offers nothing new; however, for cynics interested in Wall St’s newest scheme, and everyone else, Lewis’ novel offers an accessible but roundabout* introduction to the world of high-frequency trading (HFT), dark pools, algos, and obscure trade types.

2007 Financial Crisis Explained (Kind Of)

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.                              

Charles de Montesquieu 

Nearly a decade on from the greatest economic collapse this world has seen since the Great Depression, everybody has their own unique spin on what happened. Ask them to explain it and you’ll probably get a soup of meaningless acronyms like “CDS” and “CDO” and some paroxysms of “moral hazard” and “taxpayer’s money”. Lewis’ The Big Short (film|book) does much to amend this by telling the story of how a few mavericks bet against the rest of the financial industry – essentially humanizing a story about numbers – and along the way explains exactly what happened.

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Elsewhere insignificant, a full stop is bestowed immense significance when it comes at the end of any text. Elsewhere simply a place-holder, a moment to breathe and recollect thoughts, a full stop becomes the Shiva of imagination of creativity when it terminates any tract of writing. Before that single pixel, nothing is finalised and possibilities abound. And yet because after it nothing can change, everything is changed.

Self-Improvement

"Rome wasn't built in one day," isn't a particularly relevant quote because people don't usually go about trying to build Romes.

Ha. Ha. Wow Dan, did your humour pass away, get buried, and become worm food in a mere 3-4 months since you last posted? And did you really just refer to yourself in the third person?

Iunno. But seriously, this post is about self-improvement because as habits go, I think this is one of the most productive and fulfilling ones you can have. So if you don't currently possess it, you should aspire to acquire it. It's better than being obsessed with fame and social media, counting the likes on your posts; better than being obsessed with the number in your bank account, the car your drive, or the general image you exude; better than even going to the gym under the thinly veiled guise of getting fit when really all your trying to get is "that" image.

Self-improvement is the gift that keeps giving. Well, obviously.

Anyhoot:"A better you isn't built in one day," is a far more relevant quote here... 

since it's an arduous process, fraught with difficulties, and replete with failures. Y'know why? Because the world in general is betting against you, gleefully hoping you'll fail for the last time and give up. It wants you to stagnate, to not realise your full potential, to continue to be reliant on their spoon-feedings. Theirs is a 3-step corporate process:

(1) Get you addicted to instant gratification 

(2) Inform you of your shortcomings

(3) Offer products X, Y, Z to fix said shortcomings

Don't fall for it!

...

Attempting to practise what I preach, I've started my own pet project. A word-a-day on a Sticky-Note and stuck above my bed. (AND THIS ISN'T FOR THE SAT.) A better me won't be built by tomorrow, but if I keep working on it, it'll be complete one day.